There is one challenge that bogs down companies all around the world. No company is exempt from having to keep up with technological advancements in the industrial landscape to make sure their company is running on par with the rest. This means that a company’s entire workforce has to be on par with those advancements and be able to work in new and more challenging environments by the day, that is, a company’s workforce has to be skilled appropriately, i.e. upskilling. It is when continuous learning takes place to help individuals gain skills and eventually become better at their job.
Read on to know why upskilling is important to any organization, and how a company can benefit from it.
Why is upskilling important?
Higher wages
There is a clear correlation between skills inequality and wage inequality. This correlation means that employees will only see an uptick in their wages and overall work conditions only when their skills and interests line up with those that a company’s shareholder is interested in seeing. Shareholders will only be interested in skills that make an employee better at what they already do and what benefits their company— that is, by upskilling.
Employee development is key
Studies have shown that more than seventy percent of workers want to upskill. Along with this, employees are also seen to leave their roles when there is no room for growth. Within the employee pool itself, there is the belief that one’s skills will be obsolete within a few years of acquiring them. Therefore, providing those opportunities to grow and upskill will increase satisfaction amongst employees and ensure their retention.
Boosts confidence, morale, and productivity
A study concluded that eight out of ten employees find themselves more productive due to upskilling. Increased productivity amongst employees will result in more contributions to a team’s successes. This productivity and consequent confidence only means that employees will bring more ideas to the table and speak up to pitch more innovative ideas, thus adding to the company’s growth capital.
Saves Turnover Costs
Of course, it is not economically feasible for a company to keep firing employees and rehiring ones with the appropriate skill sets. Studies have shown that employee turnover costs come up to around a third of an employee’s annual salary. Thus, it only makes more sense for companies to turn their employees into the talent that they are looking for.
Enhances a Company’s Financial Results
Not only does upskilling result in reduced turnover costs, but having employees with the right and most current skill sets will also mean that they are able to bring utmost contribution to the company’s success— financial and otherwise. Upskilled talent means more success for an organization on the whole.
How can an organization upskill its workforce?
Today’s employees expect growth opportunities, and upskilling has proven to boost overall employee health in relation to the company. Here are ways that a company can encourage upskilling and provide the right opportunities for the same.
Create Comprehensive Training Programs for Employees
Companies can benefit from creating comprehensive training programs to help employees in upskilling, specifically tailoring them to the kind of development that is desirable to their organization. Often, websites that have all-in-one training programs tie up with the best institutions to offer the right training as well as certify the attendees appropriately.
Narrow Down Priority Areas
While any sort of upskilling is sure to aid an employee’s productivity, prioritization of what is most important to a company’s success will help streamline that productivity into reaping the most benefit for the organization as a whole.
Encourage Employees to Learn on Their Own
A company might benefit from encouraging employees to seek out learning opportunities to upskill on their own. Offering incentives to those who self-learn, or offering flexibility to attend workshops and seek out opportunities on their own will promote an atmosphere of active learning.
Bonus read: Top in-demand skills to learn in 2022
Block chain development
According to a report, blockchain development skills have gained extensive demand since 2020. Despite being fairly new it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The expenditure on blockchain is estimated to reach $19 billion by 2024.
C++, Golang, C#, JavaScript, Solidity, Python, Ruby, and Java are considered some of the most popular programming languages for blockchain development. Bitcoin, the popular cryptocurrency, was initially built using C++. Some of the blockchain career paths include-
- Smart contracts engineer
- Blockchain Quality engineer
- Blockchain Solution Architect
Artificial intelligence
From robots serving food in restaurants to self-driving cars, AI has been taking over our daily tasks everyday. A Gartner study suggests that AI will create 2.8 million jobs by 2024. If you are evaluating career options in this field below are some of the artificial intelligence skills that you need to have:
- Programming languages (Python, R, Java are the most necessary)
- Linear algebra and statistics
- Signal processing techniques
- Neural network architectures
Data literacy
Research suggests that Data literacy is the most wanted skill that the employers want in a workforce by 2030. Executives say that in the coming years, they are willing to pay 35% more for candidates with data literacy skills. Data literacy will be just as important as using a computer today. Some of the key Data literacy skills include:
- Data Analysis
- Data Wrangling
- Data Visualization
- Data Governance
Video Marketing
One might think that search engines like yahoo, bing, etc. are Google’s immediate rivals. But they are not even the close ones. As it turns out, YouTube, with over 2 billion logged-in users per month—according to Search Engine Journal, is the world’s second-largest search engine.
Video is predicted to be the major source of viewed web content by 2024, amassing 85% of all web-related traffic, coupled with the fact that 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.
Some video marketing career paths:
- Content Creator
- Video Producer
- Video Editor
- Search Engine Optimization Specialist
Cloud computing
Over the years businesses have been reducing their levels of investments on the in-house data centers and servers by migrating to cloud services. It received a significant uptick during the pandemic, as organizations of all sizes wanted to enable more remote and distributed workforces.
Some of the key Data literacy skills include:
- Cloud service platform expertise
- Application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Development and operations (DevOps)
- Network Management
Final Thoughts…
Employees seek out jobs based on what they are competent at. For people to able to move upwards in their career and climb the corporate ladder they must have the appropriate skill to fill the shoes of more qualified people. Upskilling is very important to ensure that employees find themselves growing so that they can seek better opportunities. With organizational opportunities to upskill, companies can build a learning culture that will facilitate only the best results from their employees.
Read more:
- What is impeding companies from harnessing “Top Talent”?
- Embracing ESG: How Indian Companies are Charting Ahead
- Unleashing Potential: Nurturing Women’s Leadership in India’s Workforce
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